A/N: My imagination tends to lean more toward exhaustingly emotional angst and rampant unresolved sexual tension, but while working on my Star Wars story (thick with both) I kept imagining this scene (which is entirely too silly to be compatible with angst or UST) and became slightly obsessed with it. Eventually, I couldn't focus on anything else and had to get this out of my head.

And so, here it is: what would happen if our group of space-faring friends tried their hand at writing a list of observations on Force-bonds (except, of course, they'd eschew the word 'bond' given how intimate that sounds and they're, of course, all in denial about that part). My very first one-shot! ...and my first posting of a fanfic ever.

-6/28: Updated with some very slight improvements-

Finn shuffled out of the storage hold, retrofitted to serve as a dormitory for a half dozen passengers, and into the lounge of the Millenium Falcon, rubbing his eyes blearily. He was startled to find Rey hunched over the table.

"Rey, it's the middle of the night! What are you doing up?" As he moved closer, he saw she had been writing something that she quickly covered with one of the ancient Jedi texts. She pretended to be engrossed in her reading as she replied.

"We're in space, Finn. There is no night."

"Yeah, well, there will be at the planet that we're arriving at in a few hours. We're supposed to be adjusting to their time cycle, so we can be ready for the conference or whatever it is." He slumped onto the couch beside her. "What's keeping you up? Learning about some cool new mind trick?" He brightened up suddenly, "Because if you are, that'd make this whole conference thing go a lot smoother!" He waved his fingers, in the way he always did when referring to her force abilities, and said with a grin, "'You will join the Resistance, give us ten of your finest capital ships, and fill our hold with the finest food packs you have.'" Rey rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but chuckle. Finn's stomach grumbled at the mention of food and he let his head fall back so he could stare at the ceiling miserably. "Please let there be some food at this meeting."

Watching him with a smile, Rey waved to a compartment behind him. "I think there are some blue packs in there," she said, then laughed at his grimace, "They aren't that bad." Finn rolled his head to give her a serious look.

"Yes. They are."

"That was all I had for a month on Jakku, once. I think Plutt must have gotten some kind of deal on them-it was all he traded for weeks. Almost started a revolt among us scavengers, but..." She shrugged, "I like the blue packs."

"You like anything even remotely edible. You just haven't had enough decent food to know the difference."

Rey nodded, with an expression that said, Probably so, then shot him a teasing look. "So, the First Order introduced you to a wide array of delicacies?" That got a laugh from the former stormtrooper.

"Oh, yeah. The mess hall was where I honed my sophisticated palate." They both chuckled and settled into a silence that Finn found companionable, but Rey grew anxious. She wanted to keep writing, but didn't want him to see.

"Don't you think you should go to sleep? You seem pretty tired." She was definitely trying to get rid of him, but he didn't take the hint.

"I'm too hungry to sleep."

"There's always the blue pack."

With a resigned groan, he reached up and rummaged through the compartment until he found the dehydrated food stuff. Blue and blech, he thought to himself as he tore it open and started nibbling. Rey, watching him from the corner of her eye, pretended to read, but slowly pulled out whatever she'd been writing on. Finn pretended not to notice, gazing at the bulkhead across from them blankly, waiting for her to stop watching him so he could catch a glimpse at whatever she was hunching over, trying to hide.

She was surreptitiously writing something that looked like a list, though each item was a sentence or two long. She hadn't gotten very far and, as she became engrossed enough to stop checking to make sure he wasn't looking, he could see why she hadn't gotten far: each word took her forever to write.

A closer look and he wasn't able to stop himself from exclaiming, "That is the worst handwriting I've ever seen!" She was taking an eternity to write each letter, but still it was barely legible. Immediately, she slammed her arm down on it, shielding it from his view and shooting daggers at him with her eyes. He held up his hands apologetically, "Sorry! Sorry! It's just… It's so bad!"

"If you must know," she sat up with as much dignity as she could muster and said coolly, "There wasn't much opportunity to practice my penmanship on Jakku. I was busy, you know, trying to survive." He withered under her glare and turned his attention to his disappointing meal. Rey frowned at the page. Why was writing so hard? The truth was, this handful of sentences was the most she had ever written in her life. She was a good reader, though she frequently had to ask for definitions from C3PO for some of the more esoteric words she came across in the ancient texts, so she knew how the words should look. But actually drawing out the letter accurately was turning out to be much harder than she'd expected. But, she thought with a determined sigh, there's only one way to get better at something. Readjusting the utensil in her hand, she returned to her laborious endeavor.

Finishing the contents of the pack, Finn worked up the courage to timidly ask, "So… what are you writing?" She was silent for so long, he thought she might not answer at all.

"A list. Of things I've figured out. About this Force Connection to Ben." Finn held back a noise of disgust-he hated that Rey was connected with Kylo Ren (regardless of what she called him)-but he also knew she didn't like it either and expressing his feelings on the matter only made her feel worse. If she was trying to figure it out, maybe she'd find a way to sever the connection. He decided to be encouraging and nodded for her to go on.

"I haven't found anything remotely like it in any of the texts. So, I thought maybe I should write down what I learn, to add it to the texts. Maybe it'll help someone in the future having the same problem."

"What have you figured out so far?"

Rey hadn't wanted to discuss her list with anyone, she was still slightly abashed that this connection to their enemy existed at all, but now found herself unable to resist telling him everything. It was such a relief to speak about the thing that had been plaguing her for weeks. She moved the list so he could read it too.

"The first thing is that I can see him, but none of his surroundings. Unless he's holding an object in his hands-I can see things he's carrying. But nothing else.

"Secondly, others can't seem to see him, though, during the connections. Master Skywalker was looking right at us during the first connection and he didn't see him. You didn't see him either.

"When the connection happens, all the sounds around me get really dim or muted. It's like all I can hear clearly is his voice.

"But, I can hear things through the connection a little. Sounds from his side, really faintly. Once I heard a voice of someone talking to him. It was so faint, I wouldn't have been able to recognise the speaker, even if I knew him. But I could kind of sense who it was based off how Ben reacted. I think that's how he knew it was you, that time when you walked in while the connection was happening. He could sense it was you, because of how I reacted. The same thing happened on Ahch-to" (Finn resisted the urge to say Bless you) "with Skywalker. He knew Luke was there, but he couldn't see him. But, that's actually part of another bullet point further down the list...

"And I can feel his emotions really clearly, when we're connected. Even more easily than when I can in person."

Finn was having a hard time disguising his revulsion. Hearing him? Feeling his emotions? Blech again. He was afraid his blue meal was about to make an encore appearance. Luckily, Rey didn't seem to notice. To keep himself focused, he noted, "Your list… it stops at the part about sounds. You haven't added the part about being able to feel his emotions."

"It's taking me so long to write it out," she admitted with a sigh, "To be honest, Finn, I haven't written more than a few words before this." She looked down at the list and suddenly felt like crying. It did look awful. Embarrassingly awful. The letters were formed badly and she knew someone else would have a hard time reading it. "I can't put this in with the sacred Jedi texts. It looks horrible."

"Why don't I write it for you?" Finn volunteered eagerly, "You just tell me what to write and I'll put it down." Rey smile beatifically at him. They dug through the cabinets to find another paper and, after a brief debate over the title of the list, he quickly rewrote what Rey'd already recorded. They were so engrossed in their project, that they didn't realise Poe was there until they heard his exclamation.

"That is the worst handwriting I've ever seen!"

Finn's arm slammed down to cover the page and glared up at him. Rey stifled a laugh. Poe was genuinely dismayed, "Is that how they teach penmanship in the stormtrooper corps?"

"We didn't spend a lot of time journalling," Finn practically growled. Rey, suddenly inspired with how to mollify the embarrassment of her best friend, held out her copy for Poe to see. She was happy to let Finn shine by comparison on the matter of penmanship.

"Mine was worse."

Poe's eyebrows shot up and he gave a low whistle of dismay, "Nevermind, that is the worst handwriting I've ever seen." She smiled jubilantly at Finn, who rolled his eyes but wore a sheepishly grateful smile.

"It's not a competition, you know," Finn teased, "And if it was, it wouldn't be for the worst handwriting." Poe, meanwhile, reached over Finn to rummage through a compartment.

"Hey, didn't we have an orange food pack in here?"

"If there was, it's long gone. Only blue left." Finn grumbled, leaning out of Poe's way as best he could manage. "Hey! Watch it, buddy," he exclaimed as several packs escaped the confines of the cabinet and landed on his head, "I'm trying to write here!"

Poe tossed the fallen packs back into the cupboard and flopped onto the couch next to Finn, tearing open a blue pack with a marked lack of enthusiasm. "What are you writing?"

Finn looked at Rey, who hesitated briefly before explaining what the list was and why she wanted to write it down.

"Hmm. Think you might be able to figure out a way to stop it from happening?"

"I hope so." She sounded truthful when she said it, but quickly felt a tiny flicker that told her it was only half-true. She wouldn't be entirely relieved at having the connection with Ben severed. This, of course, she kept to herself. Poe nodded thoughtfully as he chewed.

"Why don't you let me write it. I have way better handwriting than you both."

"Hey!" Finn protested, at the same moment Rey said, "Please do." Wounded, Finn looked at her.

"Sorry, Finn, but if this is going to be part of the permanent Jedi record, it has to look as good as possible." Finn sullenly slid the paper to Poe, but Rey jumped up and said, "I think we should start with a fresh page." While she rummaged through the compartments to find another paper, Finn turned to Poe.

"So, you're not only the best pilot in the galaxy, but also have the best penmanship?" He was incredibly fond of Poe, but was still slightly offended.

Poe grinned, "I won the award in primary school for best handwriting," then popped the last cube of blue food into his mouth. "Ugh. The blue packs are the worst."

"Tell me about it. Rey, here, loves the stuff." Poe looked at the young Jedi in surprise. She shrugged her shoulders and handed him a page and writing utensil.

"When this war is over, we are definitely going to have to introduce you to some real food," Poe said, shaking his head, and Finn nodded in emphatic agreement.

The three settled back down and Rey reiterated the first items on the list. Finn was pleased to see Poe having a hard time hiding his disgust at some of the details.

"Wait, you can feel his emotions?"

"... Yeah."

"Ugh. Blech. That is just ...disgusting. All that arrogance and malevolence and bloodthirst," he shuddered at the thought.

"Malevolence. That is a big word, coming from someone who can't spell 'emotions' correctly," Finn pointed to Poe's mistake. His eyes widened as he spotted another spelling error, "That's not how you spell 'connection' either!" The three of them leaned over to look at Poe's page. Finn threw up his arms and exclaimed, "You spelled it wrong every time!" Rey leaned back into the couch and put a hand over her eyes.

"I won the award for penmanship," Poe said with nonchalance, "Not spelling."

"This is ridiculous! Mediocre handwriting is definitely preferable to dozens of spelling errors. I'm going to take over writing this list again."

"Your handwriting doesn't reach the standards of mediocrity, buddy. And I can fix these." Poe hunched over the page and began scratching away at the surface. By the time Poe had fixed his mistakes (leaving significant smudges at each correction), Finn had caught up to where Poe's list had left off. The two had tacitly agreed to each complete their own version. "So, what else should we write?" Rey thought for a moment.

"Well, the connection doesn't happen if we are around other people. Well, at least, not if we're interacting with other people. I think he's had people around, his guards, but he wasn't paying attention to them. And there was this time Chewie was in the cockpit with me, but was on this way out, and Ben showed up then… Chewie was already mostly out the door and we weren't talking or anything. But if someone walks in or talks to us, it breaks the connection. So, I can avoid it, if I'm not alone."

Finn nodded, and exchanged a knowing look with Poe, both of them recalling how she had desperately avoided being alone for weeks. She'd even gone so far as insisting on leaving the door to the refresher open and carrying on a loud (and extremely uncomfortable) conversation with anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby when she needed to use the facilities.

Poe found himself wondering about how Rey had dealt with showering. That would have been extremely awkward, to be in the middle of bathing when the connection opened. Looking past Finn at her, he noted that Rey didn't appear particularly grimy, so she must have come up with some sort of solution. Inventive as the ace pilot was, his excellent imagination supplied a tantalizing image of Rey in the shower; tanned skin unclothed and soapy, dark hair wet against her back, steam swirling to cover her discreetly like a veil of modesty… then dissipating to allow for a decidedly less modest view...

Oblivious to Poe's fantasy, the others had continued with the list; Finn hunched over recording what Rey dictated. Poe lingered for a moment longer in his daydream, then realized he was falling behind in their informal writing competition and hurried to catch up.

Finn glanced over and pointed at Poe's page, "'Proximity' doesn't have an 'e' in it. And 'identify' only has one." Poe glared mildly at Finn, then rose haughtily to move around the table to sit on the other side of Rey so Finn couldn't see his page as easily.

Rey smiled to herself at their behavior. The two men were as close as could be, but would occasionally get into these absurd competitions. Last week it had been over who could get dressed and report for duty the fastest. It had resulted in a lot of scrambling and running through the corridor while pulling on various items of clothing. Finn had actually knocked General Organa off her feet when he collided with her, running full tilt around the bend while pulling a shirt over his head. Poe had gleefully declared himself the victor.

The three continued to work on the list, debating the wording on some bullet points and at one point, considering rearranging the order of them altogether. When Chewbacca walked into the lounge, Rey was lost in thought, with Finn and Poe hunched over on either side of her, scribbling away. On his way from the cockpit to one of the holds, he paused to take them in and growled a question, causing Rey to jump, before replying.

"Oh, just writing a list to add to the Jedi Texts." This elicited another inquiring growl from the Wookiee, who clearly found this to be a ludicrous pastime.

"Well," Rey explained, "All the books were written by hand, not by a computer, so I figured it would be better to keep with that tradition." Chewie moved closer to look first at Poe's page, then at Finn's, with increasing dismay. He chuffed snarkily and Rey laughed. Though Finn and Poe didn't speak Shyriiwook, they had the distinct impression that their handwriting was being critiqued. After a particularly long series of groans and growls, Rey shook her head and said, "Well, do you have a way to print it out? Because, unless you have a printing machine here somewhere, then by hand it is." The wookiee shrugged and grumbled what was probably a 'Good luck', as he shuffled off towards the corridor.

As he left the lounge, he passed Rose who shuffled in, rubbing her eyes. Rey gave her a smile and said, "Can't sleep either?"

"No," Rose stifled a yawn, "What are you three up to?" She slid onto the couch next to Finn and rested her head on his shoulder. Finn tilted his head to lean against her affectionately, but didn't look away from his paper.

"Writing a list for Rey to put in the Jedi texts."

"A list? A list of wha-" Rose stopped mid-question when she saw the uneven scrawl sloping down Finn's page. She looked at Finn with pitying eyes and began sorrowfully, "Oh, Finn. Is that how you learned to write? That's the worst handwr-" Finn's back went rigid, but before he could respond or Rose could finish her statement, Rey leaned forward with her example of penmanship and an expression that said, Are you sure you want to finish that sentence? Rose took one look at it and said, "Oh. No, Rey's is much worse."

"You want to take a crack at this too, Rose?" Poe said, concentrating on his spelling of the word 'precipitate' so hard that his eyebrows appeared to have grown together.

"There's paper over there," Finn waved vaguely towards a nearby compartment.

Rose thought it over. "Do we have anything left to eat?"

"Blue food packs." All three said in unison.

"Ughhhh," groaned Rose, "I might as well join you." She got out a paper and writing implement, then settled in to copy what Finn had already written. She, like the others, had several comments about the points on the list. "You can feel what he's feeling? 'Jealousy and other strong emotions…' What kind of strong emotions?" and "Do you think you should add a warning, 'Beware of solitary personal hygiene practices'?" and "So, Kylo Ren actually has vulnerable moments? I bet he really hates it that you suddenly show up in the middle of them."

"Yeah, he's not too happy about those moments," Rey said conspiratorially, "He tries to act like nothing's the matter, but-"

"But, you can sense what he's feeling, so you can tell it's an act," Rose finished for her. She leaned thoughtfully on an elbow and added, gesturing with her utensil, "And he can sense your emotions, so he can tell that you can tell."

"Sheesh," Poe piped up from down the table, "It almost makes me feel sorry for the basta-uh…" He quickly checked the room to confirm the General hadn't arrived to overhear him nearly slander her by proxy.

"Don't feel sorry for him," Finn said darkly, "Feel sorry for Rey that she has to deal with him." Rey opened her mouth, but closed it again. She didn't want to admit to feeling sympathy for Ben to her friends. Convincing them that Kylo Ren had other facets was not going to happen easily; Finn still had a scar the length of his back that testified to their enemy's viciousness. Ben has a scar too, a voice from the back of Rey's mind said pointedly, but he still took your hand. If he could reach out to his enemy, certainly we could too…

"The next bullet point," Rey said in a faraway voice, thinking about that moment in the hut on Ahch-to, "is that we can touch through the bond." This brought a grumble from Finn and Rose leaned onto her elbow again.

"So, you can touch him, actually feel him?" Rose asked wide eyed.

"Yes."

"Hmmm…" Gears were turning in Rose's head, but she didn't say anything further. Rey dictated a few sentences, then fell quiet again, recalling that electric shock that passed between their fingertips and the vision that accompanied it.

Poe piped up, "You did try to kill him, right? But it didn't work?" Rey nodded and reiterated the events of their first connection. "What a pity," Poe said wistfully, "that would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"No," Finn disagreed shortly, "We'd be in an even worse place than we are now. If Rey'd killed Kylo Ren then, Snoke would still be alive today. Or what if Kylo Ren had killed her first?"

"Point taken. ...Hey, how do you spell 'ineffectual'?"

After they finished that item, Rey hesitated before saying, "We should also put in a sentence about how skin-to-skin contact-" Finn grumbled again, "can result in a… a Force-induced-vision of the other party's future… or past."

At this point, Rose heaved a huge sigh and leaned on her elbow a third time. In a dreamy voice she said, "This whole thing would be so romantic-" Finn's head whipped around so quickly, he probably gave himself whiplash, "if it weren't with Kylo Ren." Finn's expression clearly said he thought she was insane. Rey blushed furiously, but probably not for the reasons her friends assumed. Poe scoffed and said, "I wouldn't have pegged you for a romantic, Rose."

"But seriously, you can see and hear each other through lightyears-lightyears!-of space. You can feel what the other person is feeling; you see them at their most vulnerable moments and they see you at yours; you can touch each other and when you do, you see visions of each other's future and past. That is damn romantic."

"You are crazy," Finn said, beginning to lean away from her as if insanity were a transmittable disease.

"Too bad it's with the Supreme Leader of the First Order, that's all I'm saying." Rose shrugged and returned to her scribing. Poe followed suit and, with another very dubious look at Rose, Finn did too. Rey dictated a final statement, but continued to blush until they'd finally finished.

Her friends all slid their papers in front of her for inspection. Finn sighed, then begrudgingly acknowledged that his definitely was the least polished. The last sentence had to curve up around the side of the page, as he'd run out of room (due to the jaunty slope of the previous sentences). Poe's version, though having arguably the best penmanship, was littered with smears from corrections and there still were several glaringly obvious spelling errors. Rose's handwriting was neat and tidy, a testament to both her attention to detail and the Hays Minor educational system (kind of impressive for a mining colony). While not as elegant as Poe's script form, it was infinitely preferable to his disastrous product. And Finn's wasn't really in the running at this point. So Rey took Rose's copy and said, "This is the one."

Rose smiled brightly, then looked surprised when both men groaned in disappointment, realising late that it had been a competition. Rey understood Poe's disappointment; given his mild case of arrogance, the pilot probably thought his version was the best. But Finn?

"Finn, you said yours was the worst. Why are you disappointed I picked Rose's?"

"Because this means Poe will be more competitive than normal for the next few days-he'll probably challenge me to a wrestling match in the middle of the meeting tomorrow."

"That's it," Poe said, ignoring Finn and stretching as he got to his feet, "As my award-winning penmanship is no longer required, I'm going to bed."

"Me too," said Rose. Rey smiled up at her and thanked her, earning a sleepy grin from the mechanic.

"I'll toss the rejects," Finn said, gathering them up and rising to his feet with a yawn. He draped an arm around Rose, who beamed up at him with doe eyes. "Get some sleep, Rey."

"Good night guys." She looked down over the list and scanned it's contents contentedly, then laughed out loud as she heard Poe rally enough to challenge Finn to a race back to the dormitory.

Rey smoothed the paper lovingly, proud to be making her first contribution to the knowledge contained in the ancient books. Standing up, she slowly made her way to the drawer where she kept them. Wondering what Ben would make of this list, she gave a snort; he would no doubt argue over several points. But then, she also wondered if he had different observations that she had missed. At that moment, the connection open and she sensed him standing close behind her.

She quickly pulled the paper to herself to hide its contents. Given how close he was, though, she was sure he must have caught a glimpse of it and prepared for the inevitable questions (and even more inevitable quarrel her answers would bring). She adopted an indifferent expression and tried to squash her anxiety (though she knew well enough that he'd already felt them, so it was basically a pointless effort) and turned around slowly. Faced with a tower of black fabric inches from her nose, she stepped back and looked up. Kriff. He saw it. His usually stern, intense expression had an added layer of derision. Looking from her face to the paper she clutched to her chest and back to her face, he slowly began to shake his head.

Rey steeled herself for the scornful comments that would come next. Would he mock how few observations she'd been able to make? Had he actually been able to read one? If so, would be have some scathing retort to one of them? She knew he wouldn't be happy about the fifth observation-he despised it whenever she caught a glimpse of weakness. Was he about to scoff caustically over one of the points she made in her observations? Braced for whatever vitriol he was about to unleash, she set her jaw defiantly as he opened his mouth.

"That is the worst handwriting I have ever seen."

The End

A/N:I hope you enjoyed this goofball of a scene and, if so, please do review. Heck, if you didn't enjoy it and can think of a gentle way to give constructive criticism, please do review. I know I have a lot to learn.

I ended up writing up their list too, so head on over the next chapter if you're curious about that. It has some notes that I'm particularly proud of.

P.S. I know, I know: basic would not have letters like "e". I took a little artistic liberty, to make the banter work.

P.P.S. Raise your hand if you caught the Muppet's reference in the title and have been humming "The Rainbow Connection" since reading it!

P.P.P.S. I'll bet you'll be humming it now! *rubs her hands and laughs maniacally*